The former secretary, who turned 100 yesterday, now continues her prolific letter writing to her family by printing out and sending letters typed on the computer.
The internet (and email) remain a mystery to her, but she was thinking about "giving it go", she said yesterday.
Celebrating her birthday at her home at Frances Hodgkins Retirement Village, Miss Carr said other than some arthritis which meant she was no longer able to touch-type, she enjoyed generally good health, with her hearing and memory still near perfect.
"I put it down to my father's good vegetable garden."
She did have to stop doing her own tax return last year because her eyesight had failed a little, but then, she said, she could still remember her father, a farm-worker on the Taieri, walking into the room and telling her World War 1 had started.
"I must have been about 5. I'm still pretty good up here [pointing to her head]. You can still enjoy life if you're good up there."
Born in Dunedin, Miss Carr worked as a secretary for Alec MacDonald Real Estate for many years and lived in Mornington for about half of her life before moving to Duke St, where she lived until 2004 when she moved to the retirement village.
She celebrated her birthday yesterday with a cup of tea with her niece and nephew from Auckland and expected about another 30 friends and family during the weekend.
The last of four sisters, she was never married, she said.
"Perhaps that's why I lived to be 100."
